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Article

David Cordingly

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

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23 September 2004

Avery, Henry [known as Captain John Avery] (bap. 1659, d. 1696?), pirate, the son of John and Anne Evarie, was baptized on 23 August 1659 at Newton Ferrers, near Plymouth. He joined the Royal Navy and was a midshipman in the Rupert...

Article

Robert C. Ritchie

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Bonnet, Stede (d. 1718), pirate, may have been a soldier as he was given the title of major during his trial, where he was also treated as an educated gentleman by the officers of the court. The most that can at present be said about his family is that he is probably the ...

Article

David Cordingly

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Bonny, Anne (1698–1782), pirate, was born near Cork in Ireland. Evidence from her descendants suggests that she was the illegitimate daughter of William Cormac, lawyer, and his maidservant. Cormac, who raised his daughter as a boy, found his legal practice so affected by his affair that he decided to go abroad. Taking ...

Article

Elizabeth Ewan

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Crab, John (c. 1280–c. 1352), pirate and merchant, was probably born in Muiden in Flanders. Active as a pirate from at least 1306, he was the most notorious of the Flemish privateers who preyed on English shipping during the Scottish War of Independence. His nephew ...

Article

Harry Kelsey

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596), pirate, sea captain, and explorer, was born about February or March 1540 in Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devon, the eldest of five known children of Edmund Drake (d. 1566) of Tavistock. Edmund's wife is unknown, though she may have been named ...

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Eustace the Monk (c. 1170–1217), Benedictine monk, sea captain, and pirate, was the son of Baudoin Busket, a lord of the county of Boulogne. According to his biography, Eustace studied black magic in Toledo, returned home to become a monk at the abbey of ...

Article

Samuel Pyeatt Menefee

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Gow, John (1698–1725), pirate, was born either at Scrabster, near Thurso, or at Wick. Details of his background and upbringing are unknown until September 1699, when he moved with his merchant father's family to Stromness in the Orkney Islands. It is believed that ...

Article

Samuel Pyeatt Menefee

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Green, Thomas (1679/80–1705), seaman and pirate, of unknown parentage, was brother to John Green, a London attorney. In 1701, when his age was said to be twenty-one, Captain Green, commanding the frigate-built Worcester, chartered by Thomas Bowrey, weighed anchor for India to obtain a cargo of cowries, pepper, turmeric, and saltpetre. This was a ...

Article

John C. Appleby

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Griffith, Piers (1568–1628), pirate, was probably born at Penrhyn in Caernarvonshire, the eldest son of Sir Rhys Griffith (d. 1580), MP and high sheriff of Caernarvonshire, and his third wife, Katherine, daughter of Peter Mostyn of Talacre. His father was a prominent figure in ...

Article

John Bennell

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

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23 September 2004

Gwyn, David (fl. 1588–1602?), poet and pirate, was doubtless of Welsh extraction, though his origins remain obscure. According to his one work published in 1588, Gwyn was a Spanish prisoner and a galley slave for nearly twelve years; he appears in Richard Topcliffe's...

Article

James William Kelly

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Halsey, John (1663?–1709?), privateer turned pirate, came from Boston, Massachusetts. Nothing is known about his parents or his early life. As commander of the brigantine Charles he received a commission from Governor Samuel Cranston of Rhode Island on 7 November 1704 to cruise against the French on the ...

Article

Susan Rose

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Hawley, John, the elder (c. 1350–1408), pirate, merchant, and administrator, of Dartmouth, Devon, was the younger son of the first John Hawley who settled in Dartmouth some time before 1340. Hawley was elected mayor for the first time in 1374—the beginning of a career which would make him the richest and most important man in ...

Article

Robert C. Ritchie

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Kidd, William (c. 1645–1701), pirate and privateer, was a Scot, by tradition born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, into the family of a Church of Scotland minister; however, the names of his parents are not known and his date of birth is derived from his age, about fifty-six, when he died. He does not appear in the historical record until 1689 when he was a member of a pirate crew brought into service by ...

Article

G. G. Harris

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

Mainwaring, Sir Henry (1586/7–1653), pirate and naval officer, was the second son of Sir George Mainwaring (d. 1628) MP, of Ightfield, Shropshire, and Anne (d. 1624), daughter of Sir William More MP, and his second wife, Margaret. The Mainwarings were well established in ...

Article

Randolph Cock

Publication History:

Published in print:

23 September 2004

Published online:

23 September 2004

North, Nathaniel (d. in or after 1709), pirate, was born in Bermuda, the son of Nathaniel North (fl. 1680), a descendant of an indentured servant, living on crown lands at Tucker's Town. The earliest record of the younger North, who initially followed his father's trade of sawyer, or carpenter, is of his being one of those fitting out ...

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